On the Chocolate Trail

Last weekend on a stormy June day (2009), Mark and I packed our barely awake Brooklyn based adult kids into a rental car for what our 26 year old called a “family fun day,” an outing to the Gomez Mill House, the oldest extant Jewish homestead in America of 1714 built by the Gomez family, and then to Teaneck, New Jersey, to visit some of our family history, including the house where we lived when Avigail and Noam were born.  A perfect mix of history, chocolate, and family frolicking as we quibbled over the front seat, got lost, ate from each other’s plates and explored Gomez family roots in Newburgh, and ours.

The kids were glad to see something of the lush East Coast outside of NYC while I wanted to learn more about the Gomez homestead, since at least five of the Gomez family members in three generations were involved in the colonial  trade and manufacture of chocolate, particularly Rebecca Gomez, her husband Mordecai, her nephew Isaac, her brother-in-law, Daniel and her son, Moses Mordecai Gomez.  [More about that another time.]  This first Jewish settlement built by a Jew up the Hudson River was probably run by Daniel and David Gomez.

Gomez Family Tree

The NY family patriarch, Luis Moses Gomez built the outpost, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, for trading fur in 1714; he had been born in Madrid but escaped the Inquisition with his mother to France, possibly Bayonne, [which connects to some of my Bayonne work].  It is said that the Luis was added to Moses’ name in gratitude to the French king for allowing them to settle in France.

The fort-like stone trading post, now much expanded and changed, exhibits several Gomez family documents, including a very large family tree of the many generations, extending to those who, in 1979, established the Gomez Foundation for Mill House.

Avigail at the Gomez House

While I had hoped to find chocolate processing at the mill house, I was disappointed that there is no such evidence yet.  However, I continue to research further into Rebecca Gomez’ chocolate manufactury at Ann and Nassau in Manhattan, not far from Mill Street, and hope yet to find something about chocolate milling at what was called the Jew’s Creek mill on the Gomez property.  As I have learned, in the colonial period chocolate was processed at any type of mill available

Our Hurvitz-Prinz chocolate trail that day ended in Teaneck with our own family history.  We visited with our dear family friend, Carlene, who remembers as she put it, the day Av was born [as Carlene’s beloved mother was dying and asked daily, “has the rabbi had her baby yet?”] and also the day Noam was born [the night of the Beth Am congregational Seder in 1986 when labor had started and Carlene’s sweet husband, Seymour, conducted the Seder so I could go to the hospital].  Carlene gave the kids a copy of the book with her mother Sophie’s unique challah recipe adorned with almonds and raisins, a gift Sophie gave her synagogue Agudas Achim, every Shabbat and ours on special occasions.

Appropriately, the Teaneck stop included chocolate, ice cream at the local ice cream and candy store we used to frequent, Bischoff’s.

Chocolate Caps the Day

And, as we walked on the main street, Cedar Lane, we discovered Le Chocolat café, which was unfortunately closed.  Oh well, a good excuse for another family fun day!